MASSENA – Construction of new recreation
facilities at town beaches in Waddington, Massena and Lisbon and in
Whittaker Park in Waddington will soon be underway after New York
Power Authority trustees Tuesday approved a $3.7 million contract
for the work.

“This marks yet another positive phase in our
continuing operation of the St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt Power
Project,” said Louis P. Ciminelli, Power Authority chairman. “We
promised to provide a significant contribution to new and improved
recreation and tourism-related facilities in the North Country and
this work is a tangible result of that pledge.”

The trustees, meeting at the St. Lawrence-FDR
Project, awarded the contract to the J.E. Sheehan Contracting Corp.
of Potsdam. Work is scheduled to begin this year and be completed by
2005. The scope of the work planned at the four sites is
extensive. The facilities at the Massena Town Beach and Whittaker
Park and the Town Beach in Waddington will be completely
rehabilitated and/or replaced.

Ken MacDonnell, mayor of the Village of Massena
and chairman of the Local Government Task Force, said, “We’re
delighted that these long-awaited improvements will soon be reality
and we’re thankful that the efforts of the Power Authority and so
many others are bearing fruit.”

The trustee meeting preceded a celebration
marking the new 50 year license awarded to the Power Authority by
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Oct. 23, 2003. As
part of the new license, the Power Authority is required to
rehabilitate existing and build new recreational facilities. In
December 2003, the trustees authorized expenditures totaling about
$170 million – including the costs of recreational facilities – to
comply with the new license. Earlier this year FERC approved the
recreation plan and required that work begin this year.

Work planned in the Town of Lisbon is included
in a separate agreement with the town, but is not part of the
license. Lisbon successfully asked to be excluded from the boundary
of the power project. Construction of a new bathhouse was completed
last year. This year new campsites will be built and the septic
facilities for recreational vehicles and the existing boat launch
will be replaced.

The Power Authority will renegotiate existing
agreements with the Towns of Massena and Waddington for maintenance
of recreational facilities and adjust the annual payments to reflect
the cost of maintenance of all facilities.

Every 12 years during the term of the new
license, after consultation with the towns within the project
boundary and other organizations that signed the relicensing
settlement agreement, NYPA will prepare and file with FERC a report
on the adequacy of the recreational facilities associated with the
power project to meet recreation demand.